Chapter 210

Jin Ja-gang practiced Blazing Twin Phosphorus Palm continuously, losing track of time.

When he first circulated internal energy through the yin meridians, his body rapidly became cold. His teeth chattered and his shoulders shivered. As his body grew cold, hot sparks ignited from the most sensitive Baihui point on the yang meridians as a reaction. Jin Ja-gang hurriedly pulled the yang energy down below his head to avoid fire deviation and extinguished the yin energy.

Then he circulated yang energy through the twenty-eight meridians in the order of floating, hollow, slippery, solid, wiry, tight, and surging. By blocking the meridians heading to his head and circulating yang energy only within his body, his body quickly heated up unlike before.

Heat rose, his skin reddened, and a flush appeared on his face.

Whoosh.

Hot breath escaped.

Two rotations, three rotations… ten rotations.

Each time the wheel of yang energy turned through the yang meridians, he felt a burning sensation as if being branded with hot iron. The slightest mishandling that let it leak sideways made him fear his body would burn up.

“Urgh!”

His body became too hot and pain came as if his flesh was cooking red. The wildly raging wheel of fire was a different kind of beast from the previous wheels.

Jin Ja-gang, who already couldn’t use the qi and blood of his left side and whose right side’s qi and blood were weak, found it increasingly difficult to endure. He needed to circulate yang energy until sweat turned to steam and rose, but his body couldn’t withstand it.

Jin Ja-gang pressed his right thumb and middle finger together and flicked his fingers.

Snap.

A faint wisp of steam rose and disappeared.

Still, he couldn’t give up here. Jin Ja-gang raised yang energy again and tried incorporating the Jade Void Nine Light Five Thunder Toad Technique into the yang energy.

Fortunately, the mysteries of the Toad Technique, optimized for handling beasts, took hold without resistance. However, he couldn’t succeed in one try.

After dozens of attempts, Jin Ja-gang became able to control yang energy according to the mysteries of the Toad Technique. The wheel of fire turned much more stably than before while burning at an even higher temperature.

The wheel of fire that couldn’t even complete twenty rotations before now surpassed one hundred rotations.

Whiiiing!

A hot fireball was rotating inside his body.

“Krgh!”

Unable to bear the pain, Jin Ja-gang let out a groan and pressed his hands to the floor.

“Huff, huff!”

White smoke rose from Jin Ja-gang’s mouth. His sweat had dried and salt was embedded in his skin.

It seemed like he could do it with just a little more…

It wasn’t time to give up yet.

“Again!”

Jin Ja-gang gritted his teeth and challenged again.

How many times did he challenge and repeatedly faint?

Jin Ja-gang continued rotating the wheel of fire until it became difficult to endure even with the Jade Void Nine Light Five Thunder Toad Technique. Finally, he reached the point where he thought his qi and blood had burned completely black, making his entire body seem like charcoal.

The sweat flowing from Jin Ja-gang’s body instantly evaporated and rose as steam.

Right now.

Jin Ja-gang concentrated all yang energy in his right hand and opened the blood points at the tips of his thumb and middle finger.

Flick!

Faint blue flames like will-o’-the-wisps could be seen.

Twin phosphorus.

Jin Ja-gang wrapped the two flames into his palm, made a fist, then opened it and struck the floor.

WHOOOM!

Tremendous heat exploded from the floor. The bandage binding his nail burned and tore away, and Jin Ja-gang’s palm print appeared darkly on the wooden floor. Parts of the wooden floor even warped.

In return, Jin Ja-gang’s palm developed blisters and his flesh was burned red.

Tang tang tang tang! Tang tang tang tang tang!

Then came nine knocks on the door.

Jin Ja-gang smiled with satisfaction on one side of his pained face.

After that, Jin Ja-gang sat in a comfortable position and slowly recovered his qi and blood.

Learning the method of operating the Jade Void Nine Light Five Thunder Toad Technique more than doubled the amount and frequency of internal energy he could use with Mad Blood Heaven Technique.

Now with one breath, he could exert more than twice the power as before, and could raise internal energy up to six times or more.

Of course, even so, he didn’t know how far he could go bare-handed against the Tang family’s monster-like masters. He could only do his best.

After recovering his qi and blood, Jin Ja-gang found the dried dust and rubbed it in his palm to crumble it finer. It was so light and fine-grained that when he held it in his palm and blew, the powder instantly spread and flew away.

Dust is naturally poisonous by itself. The older it gets, the more toxic it becomes. It mainly affects the lungs, making breathing difficult, and causes inflammation in mucous membranes of the eyes and nose, making them itchy.

This level of drying was sufficient.

The dust mixed with urine and collected was bubbling and boiling in its damp state. It smelled foul like aged manure, and toxic energy could be felt in the air.

Unlike dried dust, dust aged damp with urine acts toxically on the skin like fecal poison. It causes swelling and boils, makes the whole body itchy, and dulls movement.

Jin Ja-gang broke part of the bookshelf where books were inserted, split it finely, then made pointed wooden needles. He prepared various lengths from a couple of spans long like daggers to less than one span. He coated them with the urine-aged dust to make poison needles.

The only flaw was that without clothes, he couldn’t hide the poison needles.

Jin Ja-gang hid the wooden needles throughout the bookshelves.

He wrapped the dry dust in paper and stuffed it between the gaps in his ankle shackles.

He wanted to remove the shackles, but regrettably he didn’t yet have that ability. With no time, he couldn’t forcibly break his ankle to pull it out either.

“Whew.”

Though one day remained, there was no need to wait longer.

Preparations were complete.

Jin Ja-gang went to stand in the area closest to the entrance among the various rooms.

After raising internal energy with Mad Blood Heaven Technique, he guided internal energy according to the method of Blazing Twin Phosphorus Palm. Incorporating the Jade Void Nine Light Five Thunder Toad Technique, he protected his qi and blood more stably while generating maximum heat.

When he opened his right thumb and middle finger, two flame wicks ignited. Jin Ja-gang wrapped the flames into his palm, raised his hand forcefully, then struck the bookshelf.

WHOOOM!

The heavy bookshelf shook and old books tore and flew about.

Flutter flutter!

Oil-soaked books and ancient texts flew in all directions with black soot marks.

Sparks flew together. Paper fragments with flames transferred to them floated in the air.

Jin Ja-gang raised Blazing Twin Phosphorus Palm to its maximum once more.

He wrapped flames in his hand and struck the books inserted in the bookshelf with it.

WHOOOOM!

Flames squeezed out between his fingers.

Crackle.

Old bookshelf planks and the books inserted in them were vulnerable to fire. Flames began transferring instantly.

Jin Ja-gang picked up burning books and threw them in all directions. Fires ignited everywhere and smoke filled the air.

In Jin Ja-gang’s eyes watching this scene, flames also began reflecting and burning.

* * *

Just as the sun was setting and all doors were being locked in the Tang Family Great Compound evening…

The scent of burning suddenly began wafting through the inner compound.

The first to realize something was wrong was Library Pavilion Master Tang Lim. White smoke began rising from various spots in the ground below the pavilion.

Underground was none other than the Library Pavilion.

Since only one day remained of the deadline given to Jin Ja-gang, Tang Lim found it hard to shake off anxious thoughts.

“What is this?”

Tang Lim rushed to the entrance of the Library Pavilion.

The warriors standing guard had gathered at the secret entrance of the Library Pavilion, looking anxious.

Smoke was continuously seeping through the cracks of the thick door.

“Wh… what…?”

Tang Lim’s eyes widened.

He didn’t know what had happened, but fire had broken out inside the Library Pavilion. And it had been burning for quite a while!

From the ground passage to the underground Library Pavilion was over a hundred steps, with triple barrier doors. Yet smoke was seeping all the way here, meaning fire had been burning for quite some time.

Because the Library Pavilion occupied a vast area, smoke was also rising from ventilation holes under the pavilions of the Family Business House and Phoenix Pheasant House.

Tang Lim broke into a cold sweat all over his body.

He even felt dizzy for a moment.

The numerous books in the Library Pavilion were about to burn. The history that had been with the Tang family would completely disappear.

Moreover, because the Library Pavilion was unfortunately underground, the bookshelves and books inside would act as kindling to burn even the pavilions of the Family Business House and Phoenix Pheasant House above.

This wasn’t something that would end with just Tang Lim being held responsible for poor management.

If the many documents and receipts in the Family Business House pavilion burned, the Tang family’s overall business would be damaged, and if the Phoenix Pheasant House burned, the materials needed to educate Tang family descendants would disappear.

Truly a fatal matter for the Tang family.

People were already rushing out from all directions in a panic.

“H-how could fire break out in the Library Pavilion…?”

They had placed nothing fire-related inside and even used expensive luminous pearls instead of flames for light!

At this moment, the only thing he could think of was Jin Ja-gang.

Tang Lim gritted his teeth and ordered the door to be opened.

They had to find the source of the fire and extinguish it.

“Water! Bring water!”

However, even entering through the door wasn’t easy. The passage was completely filled with smoke. Their eyes stung so much it was hard to keep them open, and breathing was agony.

The warriors and servants had no choice but to slowly enter while sprinkling water from the entrance.

They couldn’t just leave it like this.

Tang Lim covered his mouth with cloth soaked in water along with several warriors who had internal energy, sprinkled water on their bodies, then entered the passage carrying several buckets of water.

The heat intensified as they went down and opened doors. When they opened the final door to the Library Pavilion, the heat was even more severe. Black smoke poured out wildly and flames were attached upside down to the ceiling, surging.

The bookshelves near the entrance had almost completely burned to charcoal.

“Spray water!”

The warriors went back and forth many times spraying water, finally extinguishing part of the entrance area.

When Tang Lim used internal energy to examine inside, the fire was more severe at the entrance than inside. It seemed the entrance area was the ignition point.

But that meant it was likely intentional.

Tang Lim gritted his teeth and shouted.

“Go inside and see if that bastard is there!”

Tang Lim guarded the entrance while sending several warriors inside.

However, what came back shortly after were frustrated groaning sounds.

“Kuk!”

“Urk!”

In a state where they could barely see due to smoke, warriors were dying.

“This…!”

Tang Lim’s eyes blazed as he raised his internal energy and clenched his fists.

“You bastard! So you were the one who set the fire! Do you know where this place is! I’ll tear you limb from limb, into a thousand, ten thousand pieces. Come out now!”

“I know very well where this is. Didn’t you tell me yourself?”

Jin Ja-gang’s voice was heard approaching.

“Buddhist scriptures and ancient texts number thirty-five thousand volumes. Twenty-six thousand bamboo slips, eighteen thousand woodblocks, and five thousand five hundred martial arts books.”

The outline of Jin Ja-gang’s figure could be seen hazily in the smoke and flames. Jin Ja-gang was boldly standing about three zhang away, facing Tang Lim.

Jin Ja-gang spoke with mockery.

“But there weren’t any useful books among them, were there? When fire broke out, no one thought to find and move those precious peerless martial arts manuals first – instead you’re all looking for me.”